


seeing eye to eye; burgeoning affections

by a_wonderingmind



Series: Selected Affections [5]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Again, Companion Piece, Episode Tag, Gen, Time Travel Shenanigans, it makes my head hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25145764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_wonderingmind/pseuds/a_wonderingmind
Summary: Returned to the Zephyr, Daniel and Deke bond over times that weren't.
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Daniel Sousa
Series: Selected Affections [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1801873
Comments: 7
Kudos: 30





	seeing eye to eye; burgeoning affections

**Author's Note:**

> Lawd this was difficult to orchestrate but I just like the idea of the two travellers, one from 70 years in the future, one 70 years in the past commiserating over having no idea how to deal okay
> 
> Also I am still determinedly labouring under the delusion that Peggy and Sousa are married thank you

They’d just jumped, and Mack had zoomed off for some alone time. Deke’s eyes came to rest on the exhausted frame of Chief Sousa, almost slipping off the round stool, eyes fixed on the pod and the almost-sleeping frame of Daisy. He could almost see his own worries, mirrored in the man’s eyes. He jumped slightly when a voice rumbled beside him. 

“Hey, I feel I should apologise for before. Before,” he motioned to the pod, “all of this. In the lab. I’m just… struggling a bit.”

Deke took a second to remember the argument Sousa was talking about. “Oh. Yeah. No worries, Chief.”

Sousa shot him a look at the nickname that could be taken as long suffering sarcasm, if it wasn’t completely overshadowed by the exhaustion seeping from his every atom.

“I know the feeling,” Deke continued, pulling up another stool, wordlessly accepting the apology.

“I hadn’t thought about how you all left behind your own time, too,”

“You have no idea,” he sighed. “It’s not the first time I’ve had to jump and land in a completely different timeline. Simmons is technically Nana.”

Sousa blinked. 

“You’re from _their_ future? When are you guys from?”

“Early 21st Century, approximately,” he smiled lopsidedly. “I’m originally from a post-apocalyptic future that didn’t happen, though.”

Sousa looked at him as if a thousand questions were on the tip of his tongue that were all about to spill out, before Deke shook his head.

“I’ve barely got a hold of it. When Bobo gets back we can sit down and try not to confuse you further.”

“Bobo?”

“Ah. Fitz?” A blank look told him that didn’t ring any bells either. “Simmons’ other half, and therefore Grandpa; Bobo was apparently a childhood name I gave him.”

Another tilted eyebrow indicated that that piece of information was being filed under ‘time travel shenanigans it hurts to think about’.

A pause. They contemplated the ghostly stillness of the pod. 

Sousa motioned to her. “She said this had happened before? And a name, foreign sounding. Jaiying? Do you know what that’s about?”

Deke shook his head. “I know her mom was called Jaiying. That’s all though.”

Sousa grimaced. “I can’t help thinking that maybe it would have been better if I’d died in the Roosevelt. From what that Nathaniel guy said it seems like this is bigger fire than even you guys anticipated. He didn’t seem interested in Hydra at all. And if the tentacle worshippers are 40 years ahead of schedule, that trout is beginning to stink up the milk something awful.”

A confused look from Deke prompted a sigh. “All this is definitely not coincidence.” 

“It’s not all you. Coulson said he didn’t take a deal with the Chronicoms and they’ve been messing with the time stream, making waves more than us.”

Sousa looked out from under lidded eyes. “Is that the prevailing metaphor?”

Deke shrugged. “It’s how Enoch described it to us.” 

“I thought diving back in - if I am to take your metaphor - would land me in a good place to fight whatever the squids had done to SHIELD; but now I’m not so sure. The long way around might not be enough. I don’t know what the hell that monster was up to, but I don’t want it anywhere near the agency. Given I’m dead and all, my best chance of fighting it is the quick way with you guys. I just wish I didn’t have to be severed so severely from the 50s.”

“Did you have family?” Deke asked.

The dark stare and pressed lips answered the question more thoroughly than Deke had anticipated. “There were some people,”

It seemed a strange answer, but he really didn’t want to press.

“I want my supposed death to _matter_ , y’know? If I really can’t go back.”

“Just want to make the world better.” Deke nodded. “I get that.”

“Plus,” he said quietly, “I didn’t want Agent Johnson to wake up alone.” 

He could definitely understand that.

“Deke!” Jemma came into the room, almost surprised to find him there. “Have you seen Mack?”

He shrugged. “Still getting some air, as far as I know.”

She breathed out. “Okay.”

Deke looked at her sideways, the question of her forgetting almost spilling out before her look reminded him of present company. He’d ask why she was so on edge, later.

Jemma faded back into the lab, and Deke made a move to stand. “I’ll go and see if he’s alright,” he said, grabbing a radio. 

Sousa looked at the back of his fellow time traveller as it retreated. Perhaps he’d got off on the wrong foot with him. Pun intended.

**Author's Note:**

> You can also find me on tumblr @a-wonderingmind !


End file.
